Thicker than LCL
by Laryna6
Summary: Manga AU, genfic. Desperate to outdo that other woman's child, Dr. Sohryu wanted an optimal genetic sample to create her perfect daughter. What about the same perfect DNA her employers used to force Adam to conceive the Twelfth? All Asuka knows is that there is no way she's calling someone mentally eight at most her big brother. Oh, and that she's surrounded by idiots.
1. Chapter 1

_This was supposed to be another oneshot to add to _This Alien Shore _so it didn't end on such a depressing note as Colour 'verse, but the fic insisted on going into mental trauma and what happened to Asuka instead of being a simple comedy oneshot. _

_Once again, this is manga 'verse. Kaworu's ignorance will never cease to amuse me._

* * *

Kaworu frowned at the video of Asuka like he was taking this personally, like she was doing this to annoy him or something. "I _told _you that you needed to open your heart to the Eva!" he said, clearly frustrated and not understanding why she didn't take his advice.

Why she was letting that angel do this to her, and now there was a crease between Kaworu's eyes, annoyance changing to puzzlement and maybe just a trace of worry. "I don't know what a puppet is, but you have to open your heart to her!" he demanded now, voice raised over the _sounds _coming from Asuka. Sounds, Shinji thought, that should never come from someone as strong as her.

He almost wanted Kaworu to be right, that all Asuka had to do was open her heart to the Eva and this wouldn't be happening.

It sounded like nonsense, but why was it so important that Kaworu had burst into the girl's bathroom to tell Asuka this? Like he wanted her to know it, like it was important somehow to him for _her _to know this.

The boy who strangled a kitten because he thought that was what was best for it: was he worried for Asuka?

Maybe that would have made Shinji worried for her, worried about what the strange white-haired boy was going to do if it weren't for what the angel was doing to her right now. Asuka would have to be okay, would have to survive for anything Kaworu did to matter.

At first, when Maya announced that the angel was trying a mental attack Kaworu had just smiled and said, "Now things are getting interesting," with a light in his eyes like that, and Shinji had grabbed him and wanted to punch him.

Asuka was out there, and Shinji was in here, helpless, and Kaworu was _looking forward _to what the angel was doing to her? Thought this was some kind of show for his benefit?

"I told _you _to be quiet," Misato snapped at him angrily, turning away from the screen where Asuka begged for it to stop. "That was an order!"

Kaworu didn't act as though he'd heard her, frowning up at the screen as Shinji begged to be sent out there. "That won't help," Kaworu interrupted him. "If she can't beat it, what do you think you can do? You'll just end up like her."

Damn it, why would Kaworu not _shut up_!

"You're upset," Kaworu said, puzzled that Shinji had grabbed him again. "Why are _you _upset?"

"Because she's my friend!" And how dare Kaworu say there was nothing Shinji could do! Didn't he care what happened to Asuka?!

"What's a friend?" Kaworu asked, just like he'd asked Asuka what a pervert was earlier.

"Shinji," Gendo said shortly as Shinji stared at the fifth child. "The boy is correct. The angel bored straight into her mind even from orbit. We cannot allow the same fate to befall Unit-01."

"_Unit-01," _Shinji thought. "_Not me_." He knew the Eva was all that Gendo cared about already so it was an old, familiar pain, buried under his fear for Asuka. Almost buried. "And so?" Shinji demanded. "Are we just going to leave her there to die?!"

Without even turning to look at him, Gendo said, "Rei. Descend to Central Dogma and retrieve the lance."

Fuyutsuki and Misato both seemed alarmed by the idea. Fuyutsuki got an explanation: Gendo ignored Misato.

"Don't do that," Kaworu said when Misato looked away, giving up. "You know that's not allowed. The old men will get upset, and blame me for not stopping you."

Gendo looked down at him, hands together and face unreadable… Except while he'd seemed remote before, ignoring Misato's objections as of no consequence, he was actually looking at Kaworu. Actually paying attention to him.

Why?

The other boy was so _strange_. Shinji had thought he was like Ayanami was when he first met her, but that was wrong, he was even more… who didn't know what friendship was? Or why Shinji would be angry if someone killed a cat right in front of him, or why Shinji would be upset watching Asuka get her mind raped?

He was looking back at Gendo now, frowning a little but not really at Gendo, seeming completely unintimidated by the unblinking light reflected off those glasses. As though he didn't know what intimidation was either? How could someone not find Gendo scary at all, look like this was perfectly normal and it wasn't even occurring to him that being stared at should make him uncomfortable?

"Fuyutsuki," Gendo said finally. "Contact the Committee for permission to use the lance."

"They won't grant it." The sub-commander clearly was as confused as Shinji, although Shinji saw him glance at Kaworu as though he knew why Gendo was actually backing down.

"Not until we don't have any other options," Gendo said, still looking at Kaworu. "Unless their agent has a suggestion?"

There should have just been contempt there – who did Kaworu think he was, someone the age of the pilots telling Gendo what to do? – but it sounded as though Gendo did think that Kaworu could do something.

That silver head tilted now, looking thoughtful. Breaking eye contact with Gendo not in order to break it, but just because he wasn't paying attention to that anymore. Not, Kaworu's pose declared, that he'd ever cared in the first place. Not about Gendo.

Not when it was Asuka he glanced at, ignoring the way everyone was staring at him now. "The lance copies are ready," he said, "but they won't be happy with that, either, and it would take too long, wouldn't it?" To bring them here? Asuka wouldn't last that long.

Asuka should be saying that she didn't need anyone's help. Not begging for it.

Red eyes looked conflicted now, when before Kaworu had always seemed like he knew what to do, never showed any doubts even when he killed something. "My sister… death is one thing, but… she's hurting her," he said quietly. Maybe it just seemed loud to Shinji because no one else in the room was saying anything, just looking at Kaworu with expressions ranging from suspicion to incomprehension.

Finally Kaworu sighed and stuck his hands in his pockets. "They were going to have me killed soon anyway, for not doing what they want. It's not like it matters if I die a little sooner."

That was when he started to glow.

Shinji didn't need Maya to tell him that familiar light was an AT field: he scrambled to get away, startled enough to trip on thin air, landing on his side and already trying to get back on his feet. Kaworu was an angel? Shinji had grabbed and nearly punched an angel?

Misato already had her gun out, the weapon appearing in her hands almost without her being aware she was taking it out, as though her will had just made it manifest it there. She wanted to shoot, Shinji could see it in her eyes, she wanted to shoot _so much_ her hands almost trembled, but she knew it wouldn't work.

As Gendo watched, the only one of them not showing any surprise, darkness appeared under Kaworu's feet. He dropped down into it like it was a hole – they could _do _that?! Then what was keeping them from just dropping into Central Dogma?!

The way Kaworu had appeared in Asuka's entry plug, crouching on her lap and the cockpit around her.

"Wake _up_!" he ordered, sounding contemptuous, fist lashing out to hit not Asuka, who cowered there, clutching at her head, but the wall of the entry plug. "You said you loved her, didn't you?! Or was that another lie?! I told you that she was just like me! You only had a child so that she would do what you wanted, and if she doesn't give you what you want then you'll just stand there and let her suffer like this?!" He kicked the wall of the entry plug this time, the way a frustrated tech kicked defective machinery. "You're just like the old men! No wonder my sister won't let you into her heart!"

Asuka thrashed, hitting him with an elbow more by chance than anything.

He grabbed her, but carefully. Turning to look up at the angel, he said, "As for you-"

Whatever else he'd said was cut short as Unit-02 finally obeyed the order to eject its entry plug. Misato wasn't letting an angel take control of another Eva, and Shinji had his hands over his mouth, trying not to throw up at the memory of what happened to Touji.

Even though Ritsuko cut the connection to the entry plug in order to protect the Magi from the angel, he could still hear Asuka screaming like she was right there.

When he opened his eyes, she was. Kaworu lay on top of her like they'd both just fallen from the ceiling, pushing himself into a crouching position and pulling her to his chest protectively, ignoring the alarm as people realized that there was an angel. An angel _here_.

_Again_.

Still glowing, Kaworu ignored Asuka's thrashing too. The glow expanded, creeping over Asuka's body, and Shinji wanted to throw up again even as Kaworu grasped Asuka's face, telling her, "It's alright, she can't reach you now. I'll protect you, even if _that woman _won't."

"Let go of her!" Shinji yelled, fists clenched.

"Release the pilot," Misato said, low and dangerous, feeling just as helpless as Shinji.

"Ha!" Kaworu looked at Shinji, pleased. "I knew it didn't make sense, that you were concerned about my sister. So you don't care at all if Arael hurts her, do you," he said, nodding as though this made sense, this confirmed the order of the universe. Then he frowned. "But if family loving each other was a lie too… I don't care. Even if that woman doesn't love her, even if she's a Lilim and she probably won't love me either, she's still my sister and I'm not like you." He glared at Shinji now was though Shinji was the unfeeling bastard, when it was Kaworu that killed a kitten. "I won't let Arael hurt her. She knows what my sister's light looks like and she's looking for her. I'm going to protect my sister until Arael is dead. Or until the old men kill me, whichever."

"Your sister?" Asuka, Asuka was an _angel's _sister? Or was Kaworu possessed, like Touji's Eva was possessed?

"That woman used the same DNA to make her that the old men put into Adam to force her to bear me," Kaworu explained. "She wanted a perfect child so she could be better than that other woman, just like the old men wanted me to be perfect." The angel laughed, but instead of sounding mocking it was as though the sound was wrenched from him, a hard paroxysm that made him curl against Asuka. "She slapped me when I asked her about it, and said it wasn't the same thing at all, that she 'loved' her daughter. That she wasn't just having her to use her, for the sake of her twisted dreams, just like the old men. But if love means wanting people to grow up happy, then she didn't love her at all. The old men were right when they said that she was lying, although if Lilim are incapable of love then why do you have a word for it?"

Kaworu seemed to realize how silly it was that he was explaining this to Shinji and shook himself a little, poking at Asuka to try to wake her up. When that didn't work, "Hurry up and kill Arael so it can't hurt her anymore," he told Gendo. "I don't care if you use the lance now, I'm already in trouble for blowing my cover, or I will be as soon as they find out."

Gendo just looked down at him and Kaworu looked annoyed – _now _he realized that Gendo wasn't going to help? – and the darkness appeared under him again. Under him and Asuka.

Shinji tried to dash forward, to stop the angel from taking her with him, but they and the shadow were gone before his hand could touch the fall of Asuka's red hair or the pale hand that cradled it.


	2. Chapter 2

Asuka didn't feel the finger that poked at her face amidst the ruins, or the forehead that leaned against hers. Didn't hear the sigh of frustration when she didn't wake up, followed with a small noise of confusion and worry when she _kept _not waking up. She wasn't doing this to be mean, right? She couldn't be doing it to worry him, since Lilim worrying about each other?

Was she really sick? He knew that Lilim were easy to kill, they'd taught him how. She wasn't bleeding, but the angel had attacked her mind, so…

Caught up in the fear that there was something in her mind, that the angel was _raping her mind_, she didn't register another presence, didn't (couldn't) panic harder when her body calmed down against her will. Instead she fled into that imposed serenity the way she might have fled into unconsciousness, anything to get away from the violation, from that knowledge of weakness and failure.

Her mind was broken, was terrifying shards that cut her and made her bleed, that revealed that she'd been a broken, weak and battered thing all along.

Even to survive, she hadn't been able to open her mind to the Eva. Let something else in, when the angelic presence that had broken in was already raping her mind? She'd frantically tried to shield herself and her secrets because she _didn't want to die_.

Entering someone else's mind, fleeing from her own memories: she seized that opportunity, grasped that offered lifeline with everything she had without even thinking about it.

"_You're not like this." _It wasn't like Asuka to run away, to be broken and bowed, clinging out of terror. Worry, uncertainty: how did he fix this? _"Maybe if I remind you what you are like?"_

Seeing/remembering him peering around the wall, a feeling in his gut that Asuka's mind identified as anticipation under the curiosity. Kaworu _thought _he'd heard her voice in there.

"I looked in here because I heard you talking."

This was her, really her, in the flesh, but she sounded upset, so he didn't go 'Aha!' that he'd thought this was her voice and he was right.

At the time, Asuka thought the trace of dismay on his face when she spotted him was, 'oh crap, caught,' but he really hadn't known there was anything weird about being where he was.

At least she'd been talking about her sync ratio, so that was what was making her unhappy? Well, that was easy to fix.

"Do you know what?" he'd said proudly, and she'd thought he was mocking her but he'd just been happy that he could help. Caring for each other was what family did, and seconds after meeting his sister there was already something he could do! He could fix this for her and then she would feel better. "The Eva won't move unless you open your heart to it."

At least he hadn't been dismayed when she'd yelled at him, because yelling at people was what Asuka did when she was frustrated. He thought she was brave and honest like that.

Especially because normally people were terrified of him (why?) and so Asuka treating him like she did just anyone who offered advice unasked?

He'd just stood there half-smiling when she collapsed from all the strain, but he'd thought she was being dramatic, frustrated that someone was right. She'd said, "Oh," right before, hadn't she? So that was alright, then.

Now that she knew about the Eva, she'd definitely beat Arael, right? Except she hadn't opened her mind even after Arael broke in, and _that woman_ hadn't woken up to protect Asuka.

_That woman _was Asuka's mother, but in Kaworu's mind she was a shadowed presence, with a white coat, needles and knives. A cold voice that loomed over him while he lay on bare, cold metal. He was frightened of her, the way Asuka was frightened of the husk that petted and praised the doll. Was it the same? Was the woman Kaworu knew not her mother either?

Kaworu would rather think of her. Watching her training and simulation runs: he'd learned a lot of words he wasn't supposed to know from her. He was just supposed to be studying what normal people could and couldn't do with Evas, but it pleased Asuka that he'd admired her (that someone found her worth admiring).

Especially when the old men found out what Dr. Sohryu had done.

"_She's like me_," Kaworu thought.

Except Asuka wasn't kept in tubes when she wasn't being trained or experimented on. Except the cold woman said she loved her daughter, that she'd made her with those genes so she would be the best and not just to have a good tool. So love was something that made Lilim hurt other Lilim to defend those they loved? Ah, that explained why they wanted people who loved the pilots to go into the Evas.

Except that woman hadn't defended Asuka, so what was she even good for?

Kaworu protected Asuka. So he loved her more, he was much better family than that woman. She could feel pride and happiness like a puppy's at the thought. A child anticipating approval.

Her training, her victories and high scores in the simulations. He was showing them to her, ignoring the people talking around the edges of the memories about her performance the way he had back then.

Image after image of herself, proud and determined, gloating in victory and frustrated when she wasn't doing well enough (yet), and "_that's right, this is me_." She was Asuka and she was strong. She'd tried to be the best to please her mother, but that wasn't the only reason.

To please people, though? To be admired the way Kaworu admired her, thought, "_This is my little sister_," so she was like him, so maybe he could be like her? Even if she wasn't really free of the old men, she wasn't resigned to being their servant. She'd fight it, maybe? If she knew?

"_You wanted a friend_," Asuka knew, remembering how she'd wanted someone like her herself. Someone who wasn't just competition or an inferior. She hadn't had a father, and her mother loved the doll more. A brother, though?

An older brother was annoying: he might think that he was better than her. He felt more like a little brother, like he didn't know _anything_, so curious and worried that Asuka might not like him. Like Asuka might be afraid of him, might reject him because she was afraid of him, and that was just ridiculous.

She snorted at the thought, floating in this red place.

For a moment she became aware that her eyes were closed, so how was she watching old footage of her training sessions and tests?

It was like, like something else-

Asuka's mind shied away from that thought, and she felt Kaworu's frown. That wasn't like her. Not like the Asuka he'd watched, so he pushed more of those memories at her.

Trying to remind her of who she was – yes, that was what she felt from him.

"_What's a friend?_ _I killed Arael_," she heard from him, and there was something strange in how he'd saidthought it. No revulsion or triumph at the thought of killing: he might as well have been thinking of rearranging furniture, getting some obstacle out of the way that wasn't all that important, in and of itself. Something that had to be taken care of eventually. _"So you're safe until Armisael comes. Then the old men will send people to kill me. I hope you're better by then_."

If not, then she wasn't going to get better, or there would be nothing more he could do, except… It took her a slow moment to parse that he'd just talked about people _killing him_.

There hadn't been any fear associated with it: he might as well have been talking about a paper's due date. Something that was maybe a bit stressful, but only because it was a deadline and he wasn't sure he'd be done by then. It made her want to hit him.

A voice in her mind, a memory of her own, declaring that she'd rather die than withdraw, then go back to NERV a failure and be replaced, lose her place as a pilot, but she couldn't remember the context and a moment later she stopped trying.

Better to focus on the Asuka in Kaworu's memories. Better to be strong. Yes, that was the real Asuka, and if Kaworu was her half-brother, if her mother had chosen the same sperm donor they'd used to make Kaworu, then he was like Asuka and Asuka was worthwhile, therefore he was worth knowing. Just like Asuka was.

Something in her chest unclenched and she felt herself relax, mind and body drifting, curled up with Kaworu. With her brother.

She hadn't had family since her mother died. She'd never had a (little) brother or sister, she didn't know how, but she was the Great Asuka Langley Sohryu. She'd figure it out.

What was annoying was why was he worried about her? Why was he thinking about protecting her when he was the one who had people wanting to kill him? She didn't need _anyone _to protect her, and someone who was giving up without a fight, convinced some assassins were going to kick had their ass had no right to think that _she _was the one who needed protection.

It made her scowl, because how low had she sunk, that some little boy was worried about her?

Something kept her from looking around at his memories (she shied away from the question of why it seemed so wrong). Instead she focused on the memories he pushed at her, the 'this-is-Asuka.'

Yes, she was strong and brave and defiant and didn't take people's crap and worth admiring.

(She wasn't a broken little girl.)

Stripped of her confidence by her low sync ratio, by Arael's invasion, she grasped his tentative, hopeful confidence in her to herself. He couldn't be that dumb, if he understood how great she was.

(She didn't think in terms of bandages, or casts to hold broken pieces of her steady until they healed. Because she was Asuka, and she wasn't broken. Nothing would break her.)

She felt his glee, felt him think that yes, that was better. That was Asuka, and the ghost of the sensation of a hand patting her head, touching her hair and then pulling at it (not hard – that hurt) because he'd never been allowed to touch hair that was this long. He'd seen this color hair before, but only on her. He liked her, so he supposed he liked hair like this?

The hair stuck to his hand, and Asuka realized that she was sticky.

LCL, she was covered in it, like she'd just gotten out of the entry plug. Ugh, she needed to shower.

It was Asuka that pulled away in order to open her eyes.

Pale hair and orange-red eyes, just like that doll's, but their exact opposite. Rei's eyes were lifeless, everything hidden behind a mask of emotionlessness to the point that Asuka doubted she had hidden depths, that there were any emotions to hide.

They boy's – Kaworu's – were utterly unshielded, like he didn't even know that hiding their emotions was something people did, so other people didn't think they were weak. So other people didn't attack their vulnerabilities. Not that she had any of those.

He was too distracted by poking at her hair to register that their chests weren't pressed together anymore, and she grimaced when she saw that his entire shirt was soaked in LCL. That was going to stain.

"You're better now, right?" he asked with a grin, clearly congratulating himself.

"I'm fine," she said shortly, but didn't push him away, instead putting a hand on his chest as she sat up, looking around. Why was she in her plugsuit, covered in LCL, out in the wreckage of Tokyo-3? Where was her Eva? The last thing she remembered was…

Well, she'd met the new kid in the bathroom – a memory of annoyance made her look down at him. Kaworu was still lying there in the grass: he blinked up at her, wondering why she was looking at him now. "Sister? Sister," he said again, happily.

On her father's side, through the sperm bank, so no wonder she hadn't met him before… Except… Well, it made sense that they would have wanted him to be like her, since she was the best of the pilots and he was supposed to be a pilot too, but why had her mother never told her about him?

Sure, who knew how many people had kids by the same sperm donor, but she could at least have told Asuka he existed, introduced them or something. What if she'd met Kaworu and neither of them knew he was her brother? He was kind of cute, she guessed. She would say handsome, except for the fact that he was mentally eight, so cute was the word. Mentally defective people (like Shinji) weren't her type. "What are we doing here?"

"The piano is here." He pointed at it. "I wasn't supposed to be in a place like this. So I like it here."

His attitude made her think of little kids and their secret forts in the woods. As a big sister, she should be flattered that he was showing her this, she guessed, but it didn't answer the question.

Pushing back her hair and ignoring his frown that she was taking his toy out of reach, Asuka thought to herself that she should maybe try using smaller words, except she already had.

Kaworu frowned and poked the other things he was curious about.

"Pervert!" she stopped just short of punching him.

"What's a pervert?"

"Someone who touches and looks at people's bodies when they don't have permission! Someone who goes into women's bathrooms when they might be undressed in there!" she added for good measure, remembering the last time this came up.

"Then can I have permission?" since that would solve that problem.

So he thought that was a clever idea now, thought it was that simple? "No! Because you're my brother and that's just _creepy_."

"But I want to look," he said petulantly. "It's a difference between you and me, isn't it? And people look at my body all the time, so it's not fair that I can't look at anyone else's."

Urk. "People look at your body?"

He nodded. "Like that woman. Your mother."

"Well, physical exams are different," she said, calming down a little. "That's why I said they have to have permission."

"But she looked at me even when I didn't want her to, just like the old men."

'Old men' sounded like other doctors, but why did she have this feeling that wasn't it? "Were they doctors?" she asked, because the alternative.

"No," he told her. "Doctors are the people with knives and needles, and the old men never had those, so they can't be doctors."

"Why was my mother giving you a physical anyway?" Asuka wanted to know. "She worked on the Evas." So why would they have her examining some random kid, even if he was a pilot.

If he'd impressed her enough that she wanted his same genes for Asuka, then why had she never told Asuka about him? About the competition? "You are a pilot, right?"

"I was supposed to be, but I won't be now," he said, looking at something above and behind her.

Asuka glanced that way to see one of the JSDF aircraft. Maybe she could flag it down and get a ride back to NERV? Why was she out here in her plugsuit, anyway? She might have brought it out to show him, since he wasn't going to be a pilot (still, maybe he could replace Shinji, who had screwed up and gotten Touji killed, or Rei), but why were they covered in LCL?

Black panic in the core of her, as she realized that there really was a hole in her memory, and what had happened? Was it an angel? She knew it was an angel somehow, but trying to remember made her body want to shiver.

She didn't let it. Asuka wasn't someone who shivered or showed weakness. So she bit the bullet and asked him, "Why are we here, in this field, right now? Why am I in my plugsuit, and why are you covered in LCL if you aren't a pilot?"

"…I'm covered in LCL most of the time," he said, but finally sat up. "Will you listen to me play the piano?" he asked hopefully.

"Will you tell me what the hell is going on?"

He looked to the side. "But once I do that, you won't want to be my sister anymore. I'll just be a tool or something to kill to you, the way I was to that woman. Like all the Lilim."

She stared at him as he got up. Back turned to her, he walked the short distance to the piano and sat down to play. Or rather to pick at the keys, fear, hesitance and upset in every discordant note. Asuka grimaced and wondered why the ugly sound hadn't startled awake the small white cat that lay in the grass a few meters away.

She wasn't accomplishing anything by sitting around here, and it wasn't like her, so she stood up, hands on her hips, and loomed over him. "If you won't tell me, then I need to get back to NERV." And shower. The LCL was sticking to her skin, and that wasn't all that was sticking. Lying down on the ground, she now had grass, twigs and who knew what else glued to her. She grimaced as she wiped one of her forearms, trying to remove the debris.

He was silent for a moment, before he said, "They'll come here to kill me, if you just wait. Then I guess they can give you a ride back to NERV or something? It won't take long, it might even be faster than walking yourself."

"What? Someone's trying to kill you?" And why would assassins give her a lift instead of killing the witness? Kaworu just didn't know anything about anything, did he? "If people are trying to kill you, then you should come back to NERV with me. You're one of the children, aren't you? Even if you think we don't need another pilot, Misato will still put you under guard or something."

"I'm sick of being under guard," he told her, and his head bowed now, over the keys. "They'll want me dead too, just like you will. It has to do with who _my_ mother is." A few angry notes. "They forced her to bring me into the world to be their servant, and they'll destroy me since I'm not doing what they want. Just like the Evas. I hope they destroy that woman, since what good is she if she didn't protect you?"

That was, that was fucked up, but somehow confusion overpowered righteous anger on his behalf, because this didn't make any sense. She didn't want it to make any sense. Didn't want to make that connection between 'that woman' and her mother, between her mother being Kaworu's doctor and someone _forcing _a woman to have a kid? So other people could use him as a slave or something? Even if the world did need pilots, that was just messed up. That didn't happen and her mother couldn't have been involved in something like that, but somehow she knew he wasn't lying.

Taking him roughly by the arm, she told him, "I'm not leaving you here to get killed. You're coming with me back to NERV."

"…What is it with the Lilim here and grabbing people all the time?" he wanted to know, looking up at her with his head cocked to the side as she tried to pull him up off the piano bench. "The Third Child, too."

"It's probably because you're an idiot," she said without much acrimony. He was just a replacement she didn't need, it wasn't like having to treat Shinji as an equal, when he had no training whatsoever and was just going to get the rest of them, like Touji, killed. He had _no business _being in an Eva, and Gendo Ikari had to be insane. At first she'd thought it was clearly favoritism, but if anything he seemed to want his son to get killed.

"…Will you call me Brother?" he asked, demonstrating his idiocy.

"No way! Not even if you are older than me!" she told him, letting go of him to put her hands on her hips. "I'm way too old for that sort of thing! And you act like a little kid anyway!"

He looked so downcast that she had to tell him that, "It's not that I don't believe that you're my brother, or half brother." And why did she believe that? "It's just embarrassing to call people that at my age. You can call me sister, if you want." _Big _sister.

Yes: definitely an idiot: he perked up at that, and clearly had no idea that he should find that embarrassing. Shouldn't that be obvious from what she'd said? She was too old to do that, so didn't it follow that he was also too old, since he was older (and taller) than her?

At least it finally made him stand up eagerly, more like springing to his feet, and she could tug him along, pulling his arm hard enough that he had to take a step out from behind the piano bench to regain his balance and avoid falling over.

She let him hold her hand so she could drag him along by it.


	3. Chapter 3

He thought being pulled along was fun, laughing as she stomped through the deserted city, but after awhile he asked, "Can I hold you again, before they kill me?"

"No one's going to kill you!" Asuka declared angrily. "I won't let them."

He stopped now, her hand sliding out of his because she wasn't holding him that tightly anymore, since she didn't think he was going to try to escape. They'd just been walking, hand in hand. She turned to see him staring at her, cheeks dusted with pink as he looked at her, surprised and touched. "You… want me to live?"

"Well, I don't want you to die. You're not _that _annoying," she told him, wanting to ignore that his expression was tugging at her heart. Who looked like this just from something like that? He looked caught between happiness and tears, like the only reason he wasn't crying was that it hadn't really sunk in yet that this was real. Just the thought that maybe there was a possibility that she really meant it was enough to make him duck his head a little, looking up at her with nervous submission, hopeful pleading. It looked more like the expression some pathetic girl should wear, when her crush said that he liked her back and she asked, 'Really?' since she didn't have enough pride to think that someone really could like her. Well, that made sense: who could respect anyone that pathetic enough to tolerate them, forget liking them?

Acting like this just because someone didn't want him to die, though? That was just _wrong_, and it made her think of… Other things that were wrong, that had come up when… It was hazy now, her mind shying away from it, and she wanted to change the subject. That was the only reason she reached out her hand to mess up his already messy hair.

He swallowed, and swallowed again, and ugh, here the tears came. She pulled him towards her because she didn't want to have to look at him, that was the only reason.

Ugh, what a big baby, she thought, looking for somewhere to sit down.

She couldn't bring him back to NERV when he was like this, right? Not if he was her brother. It would be embarrassing.

But if people really were trying to kill him…

Asuka glanced around them, suddenly suspicious. Nothing that looked like an attacker: the streets were deserted. There was plenty of rubble nearby that would do for cover, but a weapon? She had to get back to NERV, and her Eva.

Oh, that was what made her think of fighting. She'd heard the footsteps of one of the Evas running towards them. Two: Shinji's and that doll's.

Why were the Evas out here? Had she been on a mission when she… blacked out? Was it an angel that made her black out? She'd met Kaworu in the bathroom, right, and then she must have gotten in her Eva to fight an angel (_open your heart to the Eva) _and then she'd blacked out. Well, no, the last thing she remembered for certain was meeting Kaworu, and then she'd woken up by that piano with Kaworu.

Applying Occam's Razor… Asuka glanced down at the top of Kaworu's silver head. Even thinking about it made her feel vaguely guilty, though.

…Why?

And didn't crybabies normally disgust her?

She'd just met this guy, so why did she feel obligated to protect him, like she was saddled with him or something? Like they really were family? Why was she so certain that he was right and they were family?

Why did she find herself so determined that "_I'm going to protect you. The way you protected me." _Asuka frowned. _He'd_ protected her? Someone who wasn't even a pilot. Someone who was so, so soggy and clingy?

How, from what? "Hey, what were we doing there, anyway?" she asked him, shaking his shoulder a little to get his attention.

He looked confused. "You don't remember?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking." Idiot.

"Arael, she hurt you. Because you didn't listen to me and open your heart to the Eva." He frowned at her. "I hated seeing you hurt. It's strange: I didn't know people could get so upset about what happened to other people. Is that how Shinji felt about the cat? No, because he didn't really care about how you got hurt, and you were more like him than the cat was. Shinji wanted me to let go of you instead of protecting you, even though that meant Arael could hurt you again since she wasn't dead yet."

"You protected me? How? I thought you said you weren't even a pilot." He couldn't be a pilot: they'd have to reset one of the Evas' cores before he could pilot.

…Unless she'd lost track of that much time?

He ducked his head again, trying to hide it under her chin, and she realized that he was right up against her chest since she was letting him hug her. At least he was too upset to ask questions about the soft things, ugh. This was worse than Shinji's ignorance! Who had let this kid outside the house without teaching him enough not to make an ass of himself! Was he retarded or something? Actually, that would explain it. Either that or he was an eight-year-old in a fifteen-year-old's body.

"This is nice," he said instead of answering her question. "The Evas will be here soon, so you can go back with them. I don't know: should I let them kill me? I'm supposed to die after Armisael, so maybe it would annoy the old men a little if I died before that."

She hit him in the side. She would have punched him in the face if that wouldn't have required pushing him away from her first. "Idiot. No one is going to kill you. I won't let them."

His arms tightened, clinging to her for a moment hard enough she was surprised by his strength. It didn't hurt, but it might have if it lasted more than a second or so, or if she'd tried to breathe while her ribs were compressed. "This is… wanting to protect someone. The way that woman claimed she wanted to protect you. The way I wanted to protect you from Arael. So family really is like this." Family members really did want to protect each other. "But I don't want you to hate me or want to kill me. Once I'm dead even if you feel that way, I won't be able to care. Death is the only absolute freedom, death is an end to pain," he said in a way that sounded almost like he was quoting something, or reciting a lesson. "I want to die and be free," he said, clearly trying to reassure her, as she heard the sound of Evas running in the distance.

Asuka saw red, saw flashes of a dark room and a hanging figure, and now she did pull him back from her, did hit him, hard, with the back of her hand. "Don't… Don't _every _say something like that! Wanting to die, wanting to kill yourself…"

Like her mother.

That doll, right in front of her, and she blinked and it was Kaworu again, looking at her with confused red eyes as he raised his hand to touch a cheek that wasn't red despite the fact she knew she'd given him a good hard slap, trying to get him to wake the hell up, because that was _not _okay.

_Mother_.

"You want to die and leave me too?!" she demanded, shaking him, welcoming the red anger into her heart because under it there was nothing but darkness and she could feel her feet slipping, she could feel herself about to fall and Kaworu wanted to leave her, everyone wanted to leave her, no one wanted her no matter how smart or how talented she became. She would never be worthy, could never be worthy, was that it? Because what her mother wanted was that man's child, not Asuka. Was the child that other woman had, and Asuka was only…

Only a doll.

Just something for her to play dress-up with, a faceless being for her to show-off with, all for _someone else_'s sake.

So Asuka had failed to do what her mother wanted her for from the beginning, hadn't she? Asuka hadn't gotten her husband back, so what good was she?

The sound of her heartbeat eclipsed all else as she fell to her knees, hands sliding down Kaworu's body without finding purchase.

It hurt that he didn't grab her arms, didn't try to help her stand upright: so even he discarded her now?

She grabbed her arms, fingernails trying to cut into the plugsuit so she had something to feel, some merely physical pain to focus on.

A fingernail jabbed her in the face, and she was grateful for it. Kaworu poked her again – he probably didn't know that his fingernail was long enough to hurt, even such a small, precious amount. Something to focus on, because her brother was here and what did he care about Asuka's mother or Asuka's failure to grant her wishes?

She heard him mutter something – or at least it sounded like muttering, over the sound of the blood rushing in her ears – and he knelt to pull her towards him, tucking her head under his chin this time.

More images in her head… She remembered that training session, that day. Not just that she'd done well, but she'd bragged about it to Kaji afterwards and he told her that she'd done great. This, though, was just the fight, and the feelings that came with it weren't her annoyance soon replaced by triumph, or the worry prompted by the way they'd upped the difficulty, but curiosity and a childish pride in how well she was doing (for a Lilim), the _one-like-me_.

_He _would still have done much better, but the old men told him that Lilim were weak, so he had to fight badly if he wanted to fight like a Lilim, but Asuka was clever and came up with things to beat the enemies in the scenario even though _who was he calling weak, that was what she wanted to know_.

She felt his hands on either side of her head, his fingers over her ears and his forehead pressed to hers and "_How are you doing this_?"

"I don't want to tell you because then you'll want to kill me," he said aloud. So easily, but maybe there was a fragment of pain in there, besides that which twisted his lips into an unhappy expression (and how did she know that, when she knew her eyes were closed?). "What Arael did to you is still hurting you. I don't want you to be in pain… except isn't all Lilim existence painful?" Kaworu sounded confused now. "I want to end your pain, but killing you? That won't work, I want to be with you until I have to die and if I end your pain that way, then I'll outlive you. Do you want to become a god, Sister? I won't do it for the old men, but if it's what you want, then maybe…"

"What are you talking about?" she tried to demand, unable to muster her normal anger. The ache inside kept intensifying, her anger couldn't warm her enough to let her ignore that emptiness, and "You want to leave me too?"

"I don't want to leave you."

"Dying means you'll leave me." She drew in a shaky breath. "…Idiot."

"But the old men will kill me-Oh," he realized. "Is that why you don't want me to die? Because you want me to stay with you? So you do want complementation, then? But it wouldn't be just the two of us, the old men would be in there, and that woman." He grimaced.

"Start making sense," she growled at him, and only managed to restrain herself from shaking him, trying to knock some sense into him, because she knew that wouldn't help. He was probably incapable of making sense. "Are you _sure _you've got the same genetic donor as me?"

He nodded. "I checked while I was protecting you from Arael."

"Then they must have given you only the very stupid genes," she muttered, wondering why she didn't have a headache. "You must have been only a few months old when… Anyway, if my mother knew how stupid you were, then she wouldn't have used the same genes for me." Lest Asuka be contaminated by the stupid.

Unless the difference between them, the source of Kaworu's stupid, was his mother? "Do I know your mother?" she asked him. What had Kaworu said about her? A surrogate, probably… that she hadn't wanted to bear him, Asuka recalled now, and hoped that wasn't true, that Kaworu had just gotten that impression from her leaving him with one of the NERV branches or something.

Well, the Evas would be here soon, so she could ask Misato or someone capable of making sense what happened to the angel. Maybe Kaworu really had killed it, but he'd gone against orders or something and there was no way they'd make him a pilot now?

She peered into red eyes that were the opposite of Rei's empty ones (Kaworu wasn't hiding his emotions at all) and wondered what she was missing. Why were the Evas being sent out if the angel was dead? They should have detected the angel's death, right?

Nono, the angel was dead, it had to be dead…

Asuka realized that she was beginning to scare herself, and what must her face look like, if even Kaworu was looking concerned now?

His finger poked at her cheek again, even though his face was only inches away from hers, as the Evas' pounding feet switched from a run to a walk, stalking towards them.

"I want to stay alive," Kaworu said, looking like the words hurt him. "I want to stay alive, since you want me to live and you're still hurt inside your head and I don't think you want me to give you mercy and I don't want you to die. I thought that if you were my sister, then you'd give me mercy. Like the cat," he said, as though she would know what he was talking about. "My mother was Adam, mother of the angels. I'm the twelfth angel, created by the old men to merge with Lilith and make them gods. When that would just kill everyone, including you-"

He stopped when Asuka backhanded him, and raised a hand to his cheek, startled.

"Don't… Don't say that!" she ordered him. "You're not an angel, you can't be an angel! They're ancient, and cruel, and you're an idiot! A stupid little boy, worse than Shinji! You're definitely human! You're my brother, aren't you? And I'm human, so you're human! You…" How could someone who believed in her be an angel, be a monster? "And now look, you're crying," she accused him. "An angel… how'd such a stupid idea get into your head…"

He shuddered, and shuddered again, and finally _wailed _and flung himself into her arms. She let him, because he was crying and such a baby and her little brother that needed her just as much as she needed him.

The Evas kept approaching, until Unit 00 loomed over them.


	4. Chapter 4

Unit 00's foot loomed over them, and Asuka glared up at it, because even that blue-haired doll wasn't stupid enough to believe that this baby was an angel, was she?

Yet the foot descended towards them, and even as Asuka grabbed Kaworu tighter, trying to figure out which way to run, two things happened.

The descending foot hit a wall of solid light. As it scrabbled there, Unit 01 body-slammed it.

Asuka could almost hear Shinji demanding to know what his father was thinking, telling his doll to kill not just this idiot but the best pilot they had… except her sync ratio…

Her blue eyes unfocused as she fought to keep herself from falling into the abyss. Yes, that was right, she could open her heart to the Eva, that would make her strong. If Kaworu was trained to be a pilot (unlike Shinji) then he should know what he was talking about even if he was a little kid, right?

"Asuka!" Shinji's voice boomed from the speakers as Unit 01 fell to its knees and one hand, braced over them protectively. "Are you alright?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" she demanded. "He's the crybaby, not me!" (Asuka was strong, Asuka wasn't someone who begged for someone to save her.) "What were those idiots thinking, letting him be a pilot candidate? Is he an idiot savant or something? He may be my half-brother but he's mentally what, five?" Kaworu was clinging to her, looking up at the Eva.

"Asuka, he's an angel!" Shinji said. "You have to get away from him before he kills you! If that other one tampered with your mind, then who knows what he's done!"

Who the hell did Shinji think he was, giving _her _orders? "Not you too… But then, you're both idiots!" She pointed at Kaworu, who was hiding against her now, arms wrapped around her and gripping the back of her plugsuit for dear life. "You know what angels look like: how could anyone mistake this idiot for an angel?"

"It could have taken him over, like…" Like what happened to Touji. She could picture Shinji cringing as he thought of it.

"How are you supposed to fit a core into this?" Asuka demanded, jabbing a finger into Kaworu's side. "He's way too thin!" On general principles, forget core-hiding ones.

"I don't know, but he generated an AT field, Asuka! He took you out of your Eva, and then killed the angel."

Asuka's eyes narrowed and she jabbed Kaworu in the side again. "You took me out of my Eva?" And stole her kill, she almost said, but her mind shied away from the thought of that angel.

"That woman wasn't protecting you," Kaworu said, looking angry but not at her. "Evas are made from Adam to be servants of the Lilim, right? So I'm just as good as that Eva!"

"How am I supposed to pilot you? You're too small," she said, half with aggravation and half not because he was a child so it wasn't quite his fault he was an idiot. It was almost endearing, that he wanted to be her Eva and help his (big) sister fight, but, "Idiots like you shouldn't be allowed on a battlefield any more than Shinji should."

His white hair was surprisingly soft for something that could stick up on its own like that, without any gel. Oh, right, this was what they called 'idiot hair.' That explained it.

There was a soft, quiet happy sound when she patted his head, and maybe having him as a little brother would be something like having a pet? Only it would be easier to train him to fetch stuff for her than Pen Pen, she was sure of it. She'd have to be nicer to him than Shinji, but Kaworu was clearly retarded or something: what was Shinji's excuse?

"I could try to become Eva-sized… I've never tried to change before, though. The old men wouldn't let me. I'd be a much better Eva for you than that woman."

Asuka patted him on the head again, because he was talking nonsense and it was cute but he should shut up, even though when Asuka was just talking to stupid Shinji it didn't count as 'the adults are talking.'

"You should have a better Eva than that woman, sister! She didn't protect you at all!" Kaworu said, outraged.

This was not the time for little boy fantasies about turning into giant robots. "I don't need anyone to protect me," Asuka reminded him. "You're the one talking about perverted old men sending assassins after you!"

"I won't let you do to Asuka what that angel did to Touji!" Shinji ordered Asuka to, "Get away from him!"

Even though the dummy plug was activated because Shinji refused to fight and try to rescue Touji, so wasn't it the idiot's own damn fault? It was because he was a coward who couldn't take risks, who knew he shouldn't be trusted with a single person's life, forget the world's, that Touji was dead.

Asuka just glared as Shinji drew back his fist, knowing he didn't have the courage to do it, but, "Don't threaten my sister!" Kaworu said angrily.

Shinji had the courage to strike… only after the AT field was in the way making sure that strike wouldn't do anything, not with such a puny will behind it. Asuka was unimpressed: for Gott's sake, who let the Commander make this idiot a pilot?

"There, you see?" Kaworu said, turning to her and breathing a little hard, panic and fear in those red eyes despite his attempt to look like a boastful little boy who wasn't afraid of anything. "I am an angel!"

"So what?" she said, taking a step back only to put her hands on her hips. Then she grabbed his ear and gave it a harsh tug, twisting a little. "Are you trying to get me to take you seriously or something? Don't make me laugh!" she told him. "Unless you're me, a little kid is a little kid! Don't act like you having an AT field is going to make me change my mind about anything: I'm the pilot of Unit 02! There's no AT field that can stop me from doing whatever I want! And that doll is a hundred times creepier than you'll ever be…" Wait a minute. If _Kaworu _was one, when he at least acted human, and they looked so much alike then "Rei's an angel?"

"What?" Was Shinji's so-intelligent comment.

Kaworu nodded, peering up at her out of a corner of one red eye since she was still holding his head at an uncomfortable angle. "She's like me."

"I knew it! I knew something was up with that doll!" Asuka crowed. "You're a lot more human than she'll ever be, so if you're an angel, something that creepy and inhuman had to be. So you're half-angel, since you were made with human genes, and she's a real angel?"

"She contains Lilith's soul," Kaworu said. "She's half-Lilim too, but her Lilim genes are really evil genes. From Lorenz Keel – he's the boss of the old men – his daughter. And he said that his daughter was even more evil than all Lilim are, since she wanted to kill all the Lilim so she could become a god herself. I don't get how that's any different from what the old men want to happen, though. Instrumentality is just really stupid."

"And if _you _think so…" That was an expert opinion on stupid things. "Anyway, if you've got an AT field, then what was that about assassins trying to kill you? Since when are there angel hit squads?" Asuka pulled hard on his ear again.

"The old men have people killed a lot, so they'll kill me if I'm disobedient and don't go find Lilith and cause Third Impact. Oh! After Armisael," Kaworu remembered. "Armisael's coming already, though, so I don't have much time left."

"So how is this hit squad supposed to get through an AT field?" was what Asuka wanted to know. "So the perverts who made you have angel-fighting tech that NERV doesn't have?"

"Um, there's the replica lances? And they're making a bunch more Evas with dummy plugs."

"So they were going to send 'a bunch of Evas' after you for _not _wiping out the human race?"

Kaworu blinked at her, still not getting the point but looking properly chastised and wanting her to know that he was trying to figure out what she wanted? "They usually have the guards kill people who aren't obedient."

"Do these guards have AT fields like you?"

"Well, all Lilim have AT fields, but they've only got weak ones like you and the rest of the Lilim."

"What the heck is a Li-Never mind. You mean human, right? What the hell were you worried about a bunch of regular humans for if you've got an AT field? You're worse than Shinji! You're my brother, and you were going to let weaklings kill you? Stop being so stupid!" she said, and shook him. "You are not allowed to die, understand… Oh for… And now he's _crying _again," she said, letting go of Kaworu's ear and looking up at Shinji only because there wasn't anyone else around to share her disgust.

"Asuka, there's another angel coming! You need to let me kill that one and get to a shelter before they join forces!"

"Another one?" Wasn't this a little ridiculous?

"Armisael," Kaworu said, and she remembered he'd said that name a little while ago. "Then me, and then it's the Lilim's turn to be the ones to cause Third Impact. The old men will do it themselves if I don't do it for them."

"He's telling lies! Rei's not an angel!" Shinji sounded about ready to howl from frustration: well, now he knew how she felt, dealing with him and now Kaworu. "Don't listen to him, Asuka! You have to… If the dummy plug was working my father would already have activated it! I don't want you to die like Touji!" Killed in order to kill the angel.

She ignored him. "So, if you're an angel, with an AT field, and _my brother_, then you can kill this angel?"

Kaworu looked thoughtful, then nodded. "I'm a lot stronger than she is."

"I should damn well hope so! So go do that, since it would take too long for me to get back to NERV and get in my Eva," with these idiots arguing with her about her brother, "and there's no way this idiot and the angel doll can beat it themselves. Don't embarrass me! You're my brother, so if _you _screw up, it will make _me_ look bad," she said.

"…Will you watch?" he asked hopefully. "I watched your battles and simulation training…"

"Sure, that's fair." This way she could tell him what he did wrong, too.

The boy perked up instantly and practically tackled her, wrapping his arms around her and picking her up. She would have hit him and asked what the hell he thought he was doing if he wasn't flying. Obviously going towards the angel, then.

Shinji jogged after them.

"What's that?"

"Armisael is an encroachment type: she's taking over Rei's Eva," Kaworu said, looking around.

"Put me down by Shinji's entry plug," she told him.

"But he didn't care that Arael was hurting you!" Kaworu said, startled and angry on her behalf. "He wanted me to stop shielding you so Arael could hurt you more! He didn't really care about what happened to you _or _the cat! He's, he's just like the old men!"

"That's not… he's the one who killed the cat!"

"The cat was hurting!" Kaworu said, glaring around Asuka at Shinji. "You were just going to leave it there to suffer and die anyway! It was hungry and alone and you didn't care! You selfish, you, you Lilim! You don't care about anything but yourself and what's convenient for you!"

"Hey!" Asuka said. "While you two idiots are arguing, that useless doll is getting her ass kicked! One of you do something before she ends up like Touji, _Shinji!_" because the angel was putting itself into Rei's Eva, and might take it over around her.

"You'd better not hurt my sister!" Kaworu told Shinji, then threw Asuka onto Unit 01's shoulder and took off.

Asuka managed to land and get to her feet, of course, but just throwing people around… Well, he did know that she was Asuka: it probably hadn't even occurred to him that she might not be fine if she was thrown onto an Eva. And clearly Rei needed the help a lot more than Asuka needed to be treated like a china doll. Even when Shinji stumbled as Kaworu disarmed him, taking the prog knife and wrapping it in the same glow he was using to float through the air.

Some of Armisael's white helix extensions whipped through the air towards him, but he just blocked them with his AT field and seemed to be peering at her, trying to figure out where the core was.

Then he paused, and took on a thoughtful pose, and, "What does he think he's doing?" Asuka demanded when one of the tendrils lashed through the space that used to be protected by his AT field to hit Kaworu. It was _possible _this was some clever angel power tactic, taking it over like other angels took over Evas, but this was Kaworu.

Or maybe he wasn't just being stupid, since the angel withdrew itself from Unit 00 as lightning-quick as when it snapped out to ensnare Kaworu, its mass rushing towards him instead and coalescing in a glowing oval in front of him.

Then Kaworu flew back towards her carrying something that looked like Rei and crowed, "I got another sister!"


	5. Chapter 5

"What." Asuka stared at the needy-looking thing that was wrapped around Kaworu. The resemblance to the doll wasn't making her any happier with it, but at least it had the sense to pull back a bit and lower its eyes, intimidated by Asuka and showing submission in a dumb animal/Kaworuish kind of way?

"If family is supposed to not hurt each other, and if family being killed is bad, so…" Kaworu blinked at her, clearly wondering if his idea wasn't as clever as he'd thought it was since Asuka didn't seem to approve. "Arael isn't my sister. I hated Arael since she hurt you. But Armisael didn't hurt anyone, she was just lonely and wanted Rei… No, not Rei, Lilith's soul in Rei to be one with her. I told her that instrumentality was stupid and family was much better."

What Asuka wanted to say was no. Who gave him permission to bring other angels home with him? Asuka could only take so much stupid per day, and living with Shinji was already way too much. But Kaworu was family, and he was looking at her hopefully like he thought she was a nice person or something, and somehow she didn't have it in her to disappoint him. Because she was the great Asuka Langley Sohryu, after all, so she could do anything. Even put up with angels who were basically big babies.

She absolutely refused to even consider feeling bad about the others she'd killed. They were trying to kill her and destroy the world, she'd killed them, end of story. "Well, it's not like they have any right to complain about leaving this one alive, if they were already using that doll angel as a pilot and you were going to be one. So much for 'the angels are enemies of humanity and we need to destroy them all,' if they were keeping that doll around and she was kissing the ground that pervert commander's feet walked all over when he wasn't walking all over her and Shinji. So that's where Shinji gets it from."

Kaworu threw Armisael onto the Eva's shoulder next to Asuka before landing himself so she could whack him and say, "Don't throw people! Even if they can land on their feet, it's just rude!"

The boy ducked his head apologetically as Armisael wrapped her arms around him again, now that he was in range, and nuzzled at his face, looking upset that he was ignoring her even for a moment. Kaworu nuzzled her back and patted her on the head and for crying out loud, this was going to be like having a litter of puppies. Cute, but making messes everywhere. She'd have to be stern and train them properly before her teeth rotted.

"Alright. Well, if the Commander was using an angel, he wouldn't want that to get out, and NERV Germany was training you using my simulations, weren't they?" Kaworu answered Asuka's question with a nod. "So they knew that we had angels on our side too and weren't telling anyone. Is this what Kaji…" What Kaji was trying to find. What got him killed.

Kaworu frowned to himself as she talked: darkness appeared under him and he fell into it after pulling Armisael off him. He came back out carrying Rei. "You were lonely too," he told her. "If that bastard Shinji won't hold your hand, then I'll hold it. This feeling… You don't have any family, except for bastards like Shinji and _Keels_ because of where your genes are from. But the two of us are the same, you're like me, so that's kind of like family, yes? I'm not like a Lilim who watches people hurting and doesn't care. You're hurting just like me and my sisters."

That was when Asuka whapped him, but lightly. "Speak for yourself and that other angel. Who said you could invite the angel doll?! Well," she said, calming down, "this will be proof that NERV was using angels all along and they didn't cause any trouble or turn on anyone. This one is _too _damn obedient."

Armisael was already wrapped around Rei now, saying, "Your feelings are dark and disgusting," with a jarringly cheerful voice and happy expression on her face. "Mother is right: I shouldn't be one with you, but being with Mother will make you less dark and disgusting, so we can be together and you won't be lonely."

"So it can talk," Asuka noted. She could have said, 'wait, the doll even has feelings?' but if Kaworu thought Rei was like him, then that would seem like a stupid question, when Kaworu had way too many feelings and she didn't want him crying again.

Shinji moved his Eva under them, carefully lifting up his other arm. "Rei, are you…" still yourself, "Okay?"

Rei said nothing: Asuka could almost hear the dotdotdots. "What, don't know what to say without the Commander telling you what to think?" she asked her.

"She wants to hold Shinji's hand and thinks he won't hold her hand anymore if he knows that she's an angel and was made with his mother's DNA," Kaworu told her. "I saw her feelings through Armisael."

"Wait, so the doll is Shinji's sister?" Asuka stared at her, and then at the Eva. "That explains _so much_!"

"Wha… What?" Shinji exclaimed.

"She was made with the DNA of the Lilim Julia Keel, who called herself Yui Ikari when she came here to meet the King of the Lilim and create her own scenario where she would be the only one to become a god, by killing everyone else," Kaworu explained as though he was talking about perfectly normal stuff instead of something monstrous. "So that's where you get it from, even though the old men say that _all _Lilim are bastards." Kaworu frowned. "You aren't even going to thank me for keeping the self-destruct from working. Your old man is trying to destroy the evidence, and you and my sister along with it. This Eva's self-destruct will just kill you and people nearby, not the Eva itself since that Lilim's soul is in it."

"…Since I don't think you could make up something like that," Asuka said, "Get him out of there."

"But…"

"We might as well use him as another witness too, and this way they're out of pilots." The trouble was how they were going to fly over to the UN or a TV station or something without this conspiracy closing it down before they got there, saying that they were the evil ones. "You two are the last angels, right? There aren't any more coming to attack NERV?"

"No, we're not the last angels. You Lilim are the last angels," Kaworu told her as he popped out of the darkness again and deposited Shinji on the Eva's shoulder, once again looking puzzled that someone as smart as Asuka didn't already know this.

"Right," she said, folding her arms. "If this conspiracy is out to cause Third Impact themselves, then you definitely aren't allowed to die. Especially if they have several Evas, and tech they haven't shared with NERV," based on what Kaworu said before. "Unit 00's useless once it runs out of power, and they won't let me have mine if I'm trying to stop them…"

"Rei can power Unit 00 herself," Kaworu said. "And I could steal Unit 02 for you, although I don't know what you want with that woman and her Eva. I'm a _lot _more powerful and better and I won't let you get hurt the way she did."

"Alright… You're not going to cause Third Impact," she said, pointing to Kaworu, "but what about you two?" she asked the other two angels.

Shinji looked shocked that Asuka would even ask Rei that.

Armisael, who still looked just like Rei said, "I just want to be with my Mother. Mother said that I shouldn't cause Third Impact and that if I didn't she'd give me lots of hugs, so I'm not going to let the Lilim cause it when it's still my turn!" They'd be stealing her place in line!

"That just leaves you," Asuka told Rei. "What, did the Commander order you to let him use you to cause Third Impact."

Rei looked down at her feet.

"Rei… Don't say things like that, Asuka!" Shinji glared at her, then back at the angel doll. "Rei, tell her that she's wrong!"

"…The commander had me made so that he could use me to get back Yui Ikari."

"So what do _you _want?" Asuka demanded of her.

Rei continued to look down at her feet.

"What is it?" Asuka didn't have time for this, and would have whacked her if Kaworu, Shinji and Armisael weren't all in the way. "Kaworu wanted a sister, and you've already got a brother. Armisael wants a mother and hugs, and I guess Kaworu wants hugs too… What, are you doing all that for that bastard so he'll hug you and act like he cares? Get real! What do you want, in exchange for not destroying the world?"

"…I would like Shinji to hold my hand again," the doll angel said, and blushed.

"Sold!" Asuka said, before anyone could say anything stupid. "Kaworu, smush them together for me." This meant that Rei would be the one to have to deal with Shinji's stupid (Shinji was the doll's brother: that explained _so damn much)_, so _he _could deal with her. That way, Asuka would only have to put up with Kaworu and the Rei-looking angel.

"Hey, don't…" Shinji said, trying to push away Kaworu when Kaworu tried to put his arms around Shinji so he could pick him up and put him down next to Rei.

"You be quiet!" Asuka told him. "You're the one who doesn't want to pilot the Eva, right? And she's your sister! So what if she's an angel? You don't want to kill your own flesh and blood, do you? Your creepy bastard of a father doesn't count, so shut your stupid mouth and hug your sister!"

The Second Child reviewed her troops… well, they were more like a circus troupe. A bunch of freaks and clowns, all the scarier because they weren't joking, they just were that stupid.

Why was _Kaji_ the one who had to die? Like the one person in Tokyo-3 capable of going five minutes without saying something stupid? It didn't hurt that he was hot, too. There was the Commander, but he was fucking creepy, "Did he keep you naked and stare at you the way Kaworu's old men did?" Asuka didn't really want to know, but she was already certain of the answer and this should make Shinji stop being difficult.

Yep, there went Rei's eyes, looking down at her clasped hands awkwardly and there went Shinji, eyes widening and urge to kill his bastard father rising.

Armisael just looked confused and pushed herself up against Shinji, trying to get past him on the Eva's shoulder to reach Kaworu for hugs.

Asuka would have asked what the angel meant by calling Kaworu her mommy or something (if that was even what she meant) except by judging how hard it was to get understandable explanations out of Kaworu, that would take too damn long and they had stuff to do.

"Hug me?" the angel asked, pouting at Shinji when he tried to look past her at Rei.

"If you let me pick you up then that wouldn't be happening," Kaworu said. "You're so selfish and don't care about anyone but yourself… I bet you only held Rei's hand because there was something you wanted, or you sensed that she was your sister since family is the only reason Lilim are ever nice to people." Hmph.

"Kaworu?"

"Yes, sister?" Kaworu perked up, happy that Asuka was saying his name.

"If you don't have anything intelligent to say, then don't say anything at all." Well, yes, Shinji would have been after something when he held Rei's hand, but Asuka didn't want to have that conversation with Kaworu. She vaguely remembered dodging the 'why breasts?' conversation, and that was bad enough. Hell, Asuka wanted to know why periods and who she had to beat up as revenge for this bullshit.

Well there was Lilith… which meant Rei?

That was it: if Rei didn't have to put up with this, Asuka owed her some punches to the gut on behalf of all human, non-creepy-doll womankind.

For sucking up to the perverted commander, too.

"Put us all down on the ground," she told Kaworu, "while I figure out what to do next." Oh, idea, "Carry Shinji and Rei down at the same time," otherwise Shinji would freak about human contact and as much as Asuka wanted an excuse to destroy the doll, having to kill her because Shinji was too cowardly to hold up his end of the bargain was just stupid.

Kaworu and Armisael's cuddling and petting had a lot more contact than Asuka was used to seeing, but there was just something about the way the two of them radiated cluelessness that made it absolutely innocent, like snuggling puppies. If Kaworu hadn't known about not going into the girl's bathroom, then no wonder he didn't have any awareness of what 'inappropriate touching' was. Those perverted old men probably hadn't wanted him to know how wrong it was that they were staring at him.

Shinji and Rei were just holding hands, but there was a blush on Shinji's face that got worse whenever he glanced over at Kaworu petting Armisael.

Hopeless. Absolutely hopeless. All of them.

(But that just meant that it would take someone perfect and smart and brilliant to save all their asses, a task fit for the Great Asuka Langley Sohryu, one that would prove she was the Great Asuka Langley Sohryu, not a worthless crying broken little girl who needed to be saved and had no one to save her unless she could keep these idiots alive…)

Well, what was life without a _challenge_?


End file.
